The present invention relates to electrical connector housings and particularly to apparatus for singulating or separating such housings by severing webs therebetween formed of the housing plastic material for ease of handling and use of such housings.
According to prior practice, a system has evolved relative to electrical connectors of the type employed to make up electrical harnesses for interconnecting circuit components which features the provision of a family of connectors accommodating a variety of discrete harness wires from one to eight or twelve or as many as thirty-two. A "one-way" connector would accommodate a single terminal and wire; a "two-way" connector would accommodate two terminals and wires; an "eight-way," eight and so on, up to thirty-two terminals and wires. Generally, the family of connectors involves providing many different molds for the different sizes of connectors or expandable molds capable of being adjusted to produce numerous one-way connectors with less numerous many-way connectors per mold cycle. Still another approach has been to mold the largest connector of the family and then separate or singulate the molded product into the one-way or two-way or eight-way connectors, as desired. Typically, this latter approach has involved a web or webs joining the connectors and molded of the material of which the connectors are made which web is cut or severed during the separation process. Severing has typically been done by cutting blades, fine saws, shears or knife blades and the like which must be precisely located in conjunction with the precise fixturing of the connector during the separating process. Among the various problems experienced with this process is the fact that jagged edges are left when the web has been severed, which edges are unsatisfactory for a variety of handling and use reasons; the process is slow and expensive and due to the need for precise fixturing, expensive to automate creating additional stations in any automatic equipment with attendant handling and transfer problems.